One Filament Against the Firmament

                                    Most days Group V. practiced on seeing through
                                    Prisms because of the way they bend the light
                                    They are considered the first marker of advanced
                                    Sight tests had been conducted on them all as
                                    Children these ones could examine a dewdrop
                                    Perched on a furred leaf & not cry when it fell to
                                    The ground had no more data to give though later
                                    The books would be buried to give us something new
                                    To discover God could not be a matter of spaceships
                                    The way must be found through the mind &
                                    The eyes are distractible as the Leader discovered one night
                                    In a stairwell when one lightbulb overhead managed
                                    To distract him from the sky outside he decided
                                    That finding beauty pointless might actually be the
                                    Point at something & then see past it became
                                    The first lesson to lessen attachment to things put
                                    Here to distract us of course there were detractors
                                    Who thought the fingers or tongue would work just
                                    Fine lines of personality scar the fingertips though
                                    & tastebuds cannot belie their bias only the mind
                                    & the eyes could absorb indefinitely pupils practiced
                                    Not shrinking at the sun it was an honor to go blind
                                    Trying to ignore the tiny creatures that float across
                                    Our eyes was a task that drove hundreds crazy because
                                    It didn't make sense that something tiny & see-through
                                    Could lure the gaze away from the Taj Majal or a Monet
                                    Which they practiced in front of because of the lovely
                                    Colors & affection for them were eliminated later as were
                                    All forms of luxury like being able to see your family
                                    Across the breakfast table they all disappeared one by
                                    One day everybody woke up alone & couldn't find
                                    Each other & they all would have died from standing
                                    Still there was one girl who hadn't been able to stop loving
                                    The word marshmallow & one boy who still had a favorite
                                    Color slowly seeped back into the world & a new group
                                    Formed to research why it had left but it never became clear



                                    Matthea Harvey
                                    Pity the Bathtub Its Forced
                                    Embrace of the Human Form
                                    Alice James Books